Lasting Impression
by aca-bealeve-it
Summary: It was love at first sight, if such a saying counts if it occurs from afar and you don't really end up seeing much of the person in question. Hearing just a few notes from the voice that made Chloe Beale go weak in the knees was all it took, and little did she know it was going to take a hell of a lot more than that to return from it.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello once again! So I was struggling with my sequel idea for "I Swear This Time I Mean It" for the last few weeks, and ultimately I have decided to put it aside for the time being before I can properly do it justice and work out some of the kinks I've encountered. Until then, this is my new story that is not at all related to ISTTIMI, it will eventually take place in Barden after the first two chapters or so. Credit for the idea behind this fic goes to ****skylightisme****- this idea in particular really spoke to me and I couldn't get it out of my mind. I have other prompts that I've received as well as a 3-shot I came up with on my own that I'm trying to work on, which I will *fingers crossed* finish eventually. Anyway, enough of my rambling, I hope you enjoy my new story! Feedback is always appreciated :) **

**I own nothing, obviously.**

She definitely did not want to be there. Beca had told her mother that much when her father had first invited her to his beach house in Florida. Not only did Beca not want to spend an extended amount of time with her father, who she hadn't seen in years, she absolutely hated everything there was about beaches and everything associated with it. There was hardly anything to do at the beach; laying out in the sun was immediately ruled out (Beca would burn as red as a lobster), and she wasn't fond of the idea of swimming in an overcrowded stretch of water with hundreds of people she didn't know at all. Not to mention that sand tended to get everywhere despite her best efforts not to end up with a layer of it caked on the soles of her feet, making her wonder why something hadn't yet been invented to prevent such an atrocity by now. Even if Beca could get past all of this, there was still the stipulation that she would still have to spend an extended amount of time with her father and step-mother, which hardly seemed like a relaxing vacation to her. There was no way she was going to spend a week or so with them the summer before she would begin college; she should be spending the time she had before embarking on the next chapter of her life doing thing she wanted to do… right?

It was her own mother that convinced her otherwise and encouraged her to spend time with her father. He was, after all, the reason she wouldn't have to spend a penny on tuition or room and board for her undergraduate studies at Barden University, the college her father was a literature professor at. It was a good enough deal for her, especially considering that she didn't even want to attend college in the first place, but was later told by both of her parents that not going to college and moving to Los Angeles right after her high school graduation was simply not an option. Spending time with her father was the least Beca could do, her mother had said to her after her initial refusal of the very offer, a spectacle involving Beca's defiant cry of 'No' as she threw her phone across the kitchen counter and almost into the garbage disposal while dramatically pacing the length of the kitchen after seeing the very text her father had sent her. Beca knew her mother was right, and so she begrudgingly packed up a suitcase later that week to take with her to her father's beach house in Clearwater, Florida.

She decided on the plane ride that she was going to keep an open mind about the trip; spending ten days with her dad wasn't going to be the end of the world, tectonic plates weren't going to collide and weather patterns weren't going to alter as a result of their reunion. Beca was going to have to endure living in the same city, the same college campus vicinity rather, for the next four years of her life anyway; she reasoned she might as well begin to get used to the idea of her father regularly being in her life. When she and her father had arrived at the beach house after her plane had landed later that afternoon, despite being jet lagged and cranky from the long flight, Beca found herself feeling happy at the sight of the beach just meters away from her father's house; she could get used to this, she told herself, this wasn't going to be so bad after all.

Her tune changed two days later when, after thinking it would be a good idea to bring her laptop onto the beach with her as she sat under the giant umbrella her father and step-mother had provided, a group of children decided the space next to her would be the ideal location to build the perfect sand castle. Beca was just getting into stride as she worked on one of her current mixes, when she felt a stream of sand propelled into her lap. Looking out of the periphery of her sunglasses, she found the source of the disturbance in the fervent digging children a few feet away from her; when her gaze returned to her computer screen, she found the device covered in sand as well. With a humph and a few choice glances at the inconsiderate monsters that she later learned lived in the adjacent beach house, Beca gathered up her things and retreated into the house for the remainder of that afternoon. Days later she would continue to find particles of sand in between the keys of her laptop.

The only saving grace Beca had after her that incident rested in the fact her father had kept one of his acoustic guitars in the house. While he only played the instrument every now and then, Beca had fallen in love with the instrument when she was ten, and had taken to it with ease; learning how to play the guitar was one of the first things that led her to her passion for music and the desire to make a living out of it. It became a bit of a habit really; every evening after dinner, Beca would sling the guitar across her back and walk about a mile or so down the beach to a secluded area she had found one of the first days of her trip. Marked by a conglomerate of rocks partitioning the area from the human eye and remainder of the stretch of beach, the area looked as though no one had been there in quite some time, only marked by faint traces of Beca's footprints from the previous evening. After climbing across the large rock formation and making it down in one piece, Beca would enjoy the sight of the setting sun against the never ending ripples of water that would eventually collide with her feet as she stood at the edge of the beach. After pulling herself out of the trance the water would put her in, Beca would retreat further back, planting herself against one of the rock walls and begin to strum her guitar. It was a different tune everyday; sometimes she would play covers of songs, sometimes she would be working on an acoustic arrangement she would later incorporate into a mix of hers. Sometimes even, Beca would sing, careful as to not to draw too much attention to herself to the rest of the outside world. In this place Beca felt at ease, for no one seemed to be aware of it; in this place Beca could lose herself in her own thoughts without the fear that someone was going to intrude.

This was the place Beca came to think about what she was going to have to face in a matter of a few months she knew she would arrive at before she knew it. She thought a lot about starting at Barden, how she was going to have to learn to live with a roommate after being an only child all of her life. She thought about the classes she would take that she had no interest in the slightest in, and the stereotypical caricatures that would predictably be found around the college campus. She knew the college experience depended a lot on what she made of it, but at this point, wasn't very sure how she was going to make it work at all.

* * *

"I love everyone in this bar!"

Aubrey surveyed her slightly intoxicated best friend as she took a sip of her own drink. "Chlo, we're outside at a bonfire; this isn't a bar. It's important to me that you know that we're not at a bar."

Chloe giggled as she threw her arms around Aubrey as they stood a distance away from the fire they had recently built. Chloe had come up to visit Aubrey at her beach house for the week, and they decided to throw a party that weekend and invite all of their friends. "Same difference" Chloe shrugged as she detached from the blonde, looking at the other twenty or so people around them, not bothering to kick out the handful of individuals who found their way over to the party sans invitation. They stayed silent for some time, until the redhead became aware of the music playing from the speaker system set up along the patio of the house.

"Let's dance, Bree!" Chloe grabbed her best friend's hand as she led her over to the small group of people that were already dancing with one another. Chloe abruptly stopped in her tracks as she took in the sight of her on-again, off-again boyfriend Tom, dancing a little too closely to another girl than she was comfortable with. Aubrey saw this as well, perhaps a second too late, as she was unable to grab Chloe's arm and stop the redhead from walking up to Tom and slapping him across the face.

"What the hell?" Tom asked wincing, his hand going up to his searing cheek as Chloe looked angrily up at him.

"I brought you here with me; you don't get to dance with some random at my best friend's party!" Chloe seethed, her hands curling up into fists at her side.

"Chill out, it was one dance" the other girl said to Chloe, who clearly regretted uttering the very sentence as Chloe glared towards her.

Aubrey rested a hand on Chloe's shoulder to prevent her from potentially attacking the other girl. "Take a walk sweetheart" Aubrey instructed steadily before the girl walked away from the party, leaving Aubrey, Tom and Chloe standing around one another.

Tom turned to Chloe as he ran a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry Chloe. It's hard for me to know whether we're on or off with each other."

"Well how about I make this easy for you- we're off. For good this time."

Tom smirked, this not being the first time he had this conversation with Chloe. "Okay, sure whatever you want Chloe."

"Are you mocking me?" Chloe slurred defensively, one of her hands going up and impacting with Tom's chest.

"Okay, that's enough of that" Aubrey said as she steered Chloe away from Tom before the entire situation escalated further, leading Chloe to one of the tables on her family's patio and handing her a bottle of water from one of the coolers. "Drink up dear" she instructed.

"Bree, I'm fine" Chloe insisted as she took a drink from the water bottle. "I am fully aware of everything I just said to him. I mean it this time too."

"Mhmm" Aubrey replied, unconvinced, "Just like you were aware of when you told Bumper at aca-initiation last year that you would give him a lap dance if the Bellas lost the Riff-Off to the Trebles?"

"Fair point" Chloe said quietly after considering Aubrey's argument. "I do remember you telling him he should have got that in writing if he intended to collect on that though."

"Well I wasn't about to let you do that to yourself" Aubrey reminded her, the memory of how angry Bumper was that night after she had outsmarted him making her smile fondly.

Chloe got up from her chair as she finished the bottle of water. "I think I'm going to go for a walk."

"Are you sure you're okay to do that by yourself? It's getting dark out" Aubrey pointed out.

Chloe nodded. "I'll be fine, I won't be gone long" she assured her best friend before walking down from the patio and leaving the party.

Chloe didn't know how long or how far she had walked down the beach, but before she was even completely aware of it, she found herself perched on top of a large rock formation facing the water. Chloe surveyed the view of the water as the sunset was reflected on its smooth surface, the sight instantly calming her down from the anger that had still stirred inside of her regarding Tom. She knew she had overreacted, but there was no way she was going to admit that to him.

She wasn't sure whether she had been unaware of it until now or if it had just begun, but eventually as Chloe sat atop the rocks she heard the faint strumming of a guitar. Glancing from one side to the other, Chloe eventually spied the source of the melodic tune, a girl sitting maybe fifty or so feet away at the bottom of the adjacent rock wall. The song she was playing on the guitar was familiar to Chloe, but it wasn't until the girl began to sing that full recognition came over her.

"_Passed out on the overpass, Sunday best and broken glass…"_

Chloe hummed to herself as the girl continued to sing, completely unaware of Chloe's presence (although she would have had to look quite hard to spot the redhead from afar and resting on top of the rocks). This was the song Chloe's high school class had used for their photo montage during their graduation a few years ago; this was the Brand New song that propelled Chloe to listen to the rest of the band's discography, resulting in her desire to kick herself for not listening to the band sooner. Chloe enjoyed all types of music, it didn't matter the genre. The lyrics and meaning of the songs were just as important to Chloe as the beat and melody of it was; this song in particular meant a lot to Chloe, maybe even more now than it did when she was a senior in high school.

"_I'm gonna stay eighteen forever, so we can stay like this forever…"_

_God, eighteen felt like it was yesterday_, Chloe thought to herself. She was twenty-one now; although it was only three years difference, eighteen now felt like decades away. She still remembered how she felt the summer before she started at Barden; invincible and as though nothing was going to stop her or bring her down from doing what she wanted to do. Chloe still generally felt the same way about her dreams and aspirations, but the years of college had seasoned her to understand it was a lot more difficult than she had thought it was going to be. _To be eighteen again_, she reflected; to not worry about surviving in the real world, to be able to do pretty much whatever she wanted to do because she felt like she could and not have to worry about student loans or her car payment… as great as being twenty-one was, eighteen seemed pretty damn good right now when she considered everything she was going to have to do and figure out in the upcoming year of school.

"_You're just jealous cause we're young and in love. You're just jealous cause we're young and in love…"_

The girl's voice and strum of her guitar soon ended, snapping Chloe out of her thoughts. She looked down at the girl, who was still sitting in the sand as she looked down at her guitar. She couldn't believe the voice this girl had; after the first note she had sung Chloe was completely entranced and consumed by the song, as well as the girl singing it. She wanted to know who this girl was, wanted to know more about her; against all reservations, she almost felt as though she had fallen for this girl. _Wait, what? _She interrupted her own train of thought. _You've never had feelings for girls before, what are you talking about Chloe?_

As she walked back to Aubrey's house a few minutes later, she told herself that she would be back the following evening and that she would befriend this girl. They both shared a love for music, Chloe could tell that much; that was as good as a starting point for friendship as any other. _Friends, _she told herself over and over again, drilling the word incessantly into her mind.

**A/N: Song used is Brand New's "Soco Amaretto Lime."**


	2. Chapter 2

"Is-this-really-necessary?" Chloe huffed the following morning as she and Aubrey ran along the length of the beach. Chloe had untimely been awoken by her best friend at a much earlier hour than she would have liked, the blonde insisting that this would be the perfect start to the day for the both of them. While Chloe couldn't speak for Aubrey, she knew this was definitely not the ideal way to begin her day, especially considering the amount she drank the night before. Chloe would have much preferred to be curled up in her bed, sound asleep if she were to have it her way, even if it was almost noon at this point.

Aubrey shook her head as she glanced at her best friend through the side of her sunglasses. "Come on, Chloe. This is nothing compared to the cardio Alice put us through the last three years. We only have half a mile or so until we hit the juice shack."

"You said that half a mile ago" Chloe complained as she fidgeted with her earbuds, its cord bouncing up and down against her back.

"Well I mean it this time." Aubrey then sped up, leaving Chloe no choice but to match the blonde's pace as a groan escaped from her lips. Before she knew it, they were approaching the juice and smoothie bar Aubrey had mentioned, a favorite place of Aubrey's in the area. They walked into the establishment, instantly met with a blast of cool air as they got into line to place their orders while surveying the menu hanging from above.

Chloe squinted as she looked at the top of one of the menu boards. "Beach Bunny Banana Bonanza" she read, "They like alliteration, huh?"

Aubrey nodded in agreement. "That one has mango in it, you wouldn't like it."

Chloe continued to crane her neck in order to read the smoothie descriptions provided on the menu as she attempted to make up her mind. Unknowingly, the redhead lost her balance, stumbling backward into the person standing behind her.

"Sorry!" Chloe apologized as she regained her balance, turning around to find it was a petite brunette she had collided with.

The girl smirked, eyeing Chloe oddly before she opened her mouth to reply. "So much for no shirt, no shoes, no service, huh?" She gestured at both Aubrey and Chloe, the girls clad only in running shorts and sports bras, having decided to run barefoot that morning in the sand.

"It's a beach town, I highly doubt it" Aubrey scoffed, rolling her eyes at the girl before her attention diverted away from her as they moved up in line. "Smart ass" she muttered under her breath.

"You're right, I shouldn't be concerned about the sanitary conditions of a venue as much as I should regarding their policy about serving bitchy patrons" the girl chimed behind her, able to clearly hear what Aubrey had previously said.

The blonde fumed, turning around to face the shorter girl as Chloe put in her order at the counter. "Really? Does that policy also cover what to do when snarky alt-girls annoy the living crap out of other customers?"

Chloe turned around from where she was standing as she heard Aubrey's voice heighten. She was met with the sight of her best friend looking menacingly down at the girl she had accidently run into moments ago, the blonde was in a stance signaling as though she was on the brink of attack, while the shorter brunette only seemed to look amused by the entire interaction.

"Ok, let's go Bree" Chloe turned Aubrey away from the other girl, pushing her up to the counter in order for her to order. "Sorry again" she added to the brunette, "She gets really testy in the heat." The other girl said nothing in reply before Chloe turned around, rejoining Aubrey as they gathered their refreshments.

"That escalated rather quickly" Chloe stated as sat down at an empty table.

Aubrey shot a glare toward Chloe, still fuming from the confrontation. "God help me if I run into her again this summer."

* * *

Beca grabbed her father's guitar by the neck, slinging the instrument across her back as its strap fell diagonally across her chest. It was almost sunset, and Beca needed this musical session of hers tonight more than any other time this week, still reeling from the encounter she had experienced while trying to get a smoothie earlier that day. _Was everyone on this beach as belligerent as that blonde? _ She thought as she was walking home from the smoothie bar. _It's a really good thing this is my last day on this goddamn beach._

"Where do you think you're going?" Beca turned around as she heard her father's voice call her from the living room. She slowly walked into the adjacent room, finding her father sitting in one of the armchairs, hands resting comfortably on each armrest.

"Out" Beca replied simply, "Just like every other night this week."

Her dad shook his head. "Not tonight you're not. Family movie night. Shelia's getting popcorn and snacks at the store right now."

"Shelia's not my family, therefore I'm exempt from participating." Beca turned around, walking toward the front door once again.

"Beca" her father said sternly. Beca turned around once again to face him, arms folded across his chest as he now stood in the middle of the room. She knew she shouldn't have said what she did, but sometimes she couldn't stop herself. Plus, she needed to be alone tonight, somewhere outside the vicinity of this house. "It's your last night here, and I won't see you until you start at school. Come on, it'll be fun, Shelia's getting peanut butter M&M's…"

Beca hesitated, biting her tongue in order to prevent herself from making another snide remark. Her father was trying here, she had to give him that. And whether she liked it or not, both he and his wife were going to be a part of her life now, and it would be easier on all of them if she at least gave them both a chance. Besides, bribing her with her favorite candy was a good start to winning her over.

"You should know by now that I strongly dislike movies" she eventually pointed out to her father after she had made up her mind regarding what she was to do.

Her father smiled knowingly at her. "Did I say movie night? Because what I meant was _Game of Thrones_ rewatch night" he added, holding up a DVD case for Beca to see.

Beca rolled her eyes at her father. "Fine" she drawled, shrugging the guitar off of her before placing it against the wall and taking a seat on the couch, her father smiling at her as he sat down beside her.

* * *

"Chloe… earth to Chloe!" Chloe felt one of her earbuds yanked out of her ear as her eyes fluttered open slowly, the sight of Aubrey standing over her as she lay in her bed becoming clearer with each passing moment.

Chloe sat up in the bed, her back resting against the headboard as one of her hands absentmindedly ran through the back of her hair. "Yes?" she said groggily, her voice heavy with sleep.

"You told me to wake you up by eight so we can watch the _Project Runway_ marathon that's on tonight" Aubrey reminded her as she sat beside her on the edge of the bed. The blonde picked up the iPod resting beside Chloe, music still playing from it as Chloe had failed to turn the device off. "You've had this Brand New song on loop for the past two hours" she said with a frown. "Not to mention I heard it coming from your earphones when we were running this morning. Obsessed much?"

"Just feeling a bit nostalgic I guess" Chloe said quickly, taking the music player from Aubrey's hand as she turned it off. She paused, biting her lip before she continued. "Do you believe in love at first sight?"

Aubrey stopped to consider the question before responding. "I think it's possible that such a thing can happen, sure. I think it takes time to develop feelings for a person though; I mean, how much can you really know about someone from the first time you encounter them?" Aubrey looked over at Chloe who was fidgeting with a loose stand of the comforter. "Does this have something to do with Tom?"

"Definitely not" Chloe assured her, "There was no way that was love at first sight. He freaking hit me with a rogue baseball during tryouts when we were running around the fields for Bellas freshman year. I was not having that at first."

Aubrey chuckled, the memory involving her nearly colliding with the redhead who was running in front of her as she was smacked in the head with a fly ball from the Barden baseball team practice. "So what does this have to do then? Or who rather, I should say."

Chloe bit her bottom lip nervously; apprehension regarding this… infatuation she had with the singer she heard the night before was the dominant subject matter within her mind. She knew she could trust Aubrey with this, with anything really, but didn't want to reveal the full story until she was completely sure with how she was feeling. "It's just something I was thinking about is all" she explained.

"I see" Aubrey replied. "Well, I suppose it can occur, but I think it relies a bit too much on the whole 'judge a book by its cover' sort of thing. You could think someone is perfect for you based on appearance along but he could end up being a total douche. Love is about more than just the first impressions of someone, for me at least."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Chloe considered what Aubrey had said. She didn't know a thing about this girl, only that she had an amazing voice and pretty good guitar skills. Who knew what this girl was like other than that; she could be a homicidal maniac for all she knew. Plus, she was on vacation and it was almost a certainty that she would never see her again, making Chloe even more confused as to why she was so incredibly drawn to her. Still, something kept pulling Chloe in, wanting to know more if only so she didn't feel like she was wasting a potential missed opportunity, albeit a short lived one. "I think I'm going to go for a walk, I need some fresh air for a bit."

Aubrey stood up from the bed as Chloe's legs swung to the side as she stood up as well. "And miss the first episode of the marathon?" she jokingly gasped.

Chloe smiled. "It's not like I haven't seen them already."

"This is true; plus this means I get to watch an episode without you doing a terrible job at a Tim Gunn impression at some point throughout the episode." Aubrey commented, mock offense washing over Chloe's face.

"Clearly I need to keep working on it then" Chloe said with a wink, grabbing the sweatshirt hanging from the desk chair beside her. "Send the beach patrol if I'm not back in an hour."

Chloe walked out of the room and towards the back door of the house, kicking her flip flops off as she carried them with one hand as she walked out onto the beach. The walk over to the rocky partition seemed to go much quicker this time than the night before, Chloe thought to herself as she traversed the small wall and perched herself atop it. She looked around the vacant spot of the beach, no sight of the girl with the guitar at all. She continued to sit there, twenty, thirty minutes with no sight of her at all. _Maybe I imagined it_, Chloe thought to herself, knowing that could have been a possibility given her state the night before. Slightly disappointed, she retreated from the point, walking back to Aubrey's beach house.

Chloe returned to the very spot every night for the next few days without any luck of running into the girl whose voice immediately brought butterflies fluttering into her stomach. Any thoughts of this girl soon left her mind as she left the beach to return home a few days later to finish out the remainder of her summer. Whatever may have come of a potential run-in with the singer, Chloe would never know; it was an opportunity lost in her own opinion, something she had to remove from her mind and move on from.

**A/N: So, we're going to be jumping ahead a month or two ahead to the start of the school year at Barden in the next chapter, and things will be picking up from there as far as the storyline goes; the first two chapters of the story, I think, are building the foundation for the rest of the story. I'll hopefully have the next chapter up within the next few days, so until next time!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey everyone! Just a quick note, in case anyone else was unsure (and I'll admit I was pretty vague about it), Chloe did not see the girl with the guitar's face the night she stumbled over to where Beca was playing, and certainly didn't recognize her the following day with Aubrey. Which kind of leads to some amusing interactions between the three girls coming up... anyway, here is another chapter! I had a lot of fun writing this one, I hope you enjoy it!**

The dorm room wasn't that bad, even Beca could admit at least that much to herself as she walked into her assigned room in Barden's Baker Hall on the day of freshman move-in. She was, however, met with the icy stare of her roommate Kimmy Jin the moment she entered the room; it had been nearly an hour since Beca had formally introduced herself, and the fellow freshman had not uttered a single word to her yet.

Beca had just finished setting up her computer and mixing equipment across her desk, meticulously ensuring that everything was where she wanted it to be. She set her desk up the same way her desk had been at home, thankful that the desks were roughly the same size as one another and she wouldn't have to redefine her mixing feng shui; having some sort of constant in her transition to college instantly made her feel more at ease. As she was about to delve into working on her most recent mix, one she had begun at the airport as she waited to board her flight, a thought occurred to her, one which she needed to address right away.

"Kimmy Jin," Beca announced, waiting patiently until her roommate turned in her seat to face her. "I'm pretty easy going and I don't really care what you do in here or when you do it but I only ask one thing" she gestured towards her mixing equipment on the top of her desk and the guitar that was resting against her bed, "My music is sort of everything to me, so please don't touch… cool?"

Kimmy Jin continued to stare blankly at Beca, not saying a single word in response. "It's extremely important to me that you acknowledge this interaction" Beca eyed the girl nervously, the girl frozen from where she sat before turning back toward the tablet on her desk, "Even a nod, or just another glare my way…" Beca rolled her eyes as she was met with silence again, wondering that maybe she didn't know a word of English, before turning her attention to the screen of her laptop before opening up the music file she had been working on.

"Hide your wine coolers!" Beca faintly heard from the other end of the room, snapping herself out of the daze she often found herself immersed in whenever working on one of her mixes. She swirled around, finding her father smiling widely across from her.

"Chris Rock, everybody" Beca said flatly before turning back to her mixing program.

"Really, Bec? Chris Rock?" her dad asked," You couldn't have compared me to Dane Cook, or someone hip?"

"Don't say hip, Dad" Beca warned.

Her father laughed, amused by his daughter before changing the subject. "So when did you get here? How did you get here?"

"I took a cab, didn't want to burden you and Shelia. How is the step-monster?"

"Is referring to her as the step-monster really necessary?"

"It is when she said she didn't like Ned Stark during family night" Beca argued, referring to the final night of her vacation with her father and Shelia, "Plus I just really wanted to say step-monster" she added wryly.

Her father smirked at her, knowing he should have seen something of the like coming. "Are you almost done setting up your room? Special campus tour starting soon, courtesy of Dr. Aaron Mitchell, literature professor and Barden fact buff extraordinaire."

"Tell me, do you have that listed on your CV? If not you really should, total career-building move if you ask me" Beca continued to adjust the various knobs and dials on the various equipment in front of her, determined to get the sound and pace of the track where she wanted it, her patience with her father almost consumed for the day already.

"Give it a chance, Beca" Aaron replied, knowing this was not the easiest situation for his daughter to be in. "You should at least let me show you around the quad; during finals week in the spring nearly half the student body goes there and studies on the grass-"

"I don't want to study on the grass, Dad. I really don't want to be here to begin with. I want to make music and I need to be in LA so I can start paying my dues."

Her father nodded, knowing where his daughter was coming from as the topic had been a topic of many conversations over the summer when they were together. "You know the deal, Beca. Get a college degree first; free of charge no less, before you become the next Jay Z or whoever it is you aspire to be. It's non-negotiable."

Beca bit her lip as she took a deep breath before replying to her father. She was cut off, however, by her roommate Kimmy Jin as she abruptly stood up from her desk. "I'm going to the activities fair."

Beca watched her walk out of the room, following behind her as she addressed her father. "Me too, I'm going to the activities fair. There's a Quidditch club here you know, the Snitch nearly got run over by my cab driver when we pulled into campus." She exited the room, not looking behind to see if her father had followed her. With no sight of her roommate but unsure of where else she should go on the campus, Beca decided to follow the crowd of her peers to the activity fair; there had to be something this school had that she would like, she told herself.

* * *

"This is a travesty!" Chloe sang to Aubrey as yet another girl they had initiated conversation with at the Bellas booth had shown no interest in joining their a cappella group.

"Take the dramatics down a notch" Aubrey replied, smoothing the length of her dress with one hand as the other clutched the empty sign-up sheet for auditions that were to be held the following month. "We will find eight Bella-worthy girls on this campus if it's the last thing I do."

"It's not just that, Bree" Chloe explained, "I should be studying for the test that I already have scheduled for my microbiology class at the end of the week. Classes haven't even started yet! I must have been completely out of my mind when I decided to be a TA for the chemistry department; I have no time to do all of this."

"You can and you will, I've seen you juggle much more" Aubrey said calmly to her best friend. "Plus, this is all going to look awesome when you send in those med school applications, and once you're in you can day drink and skip class to watch the baseball team practice."

"I can't believe you're advocating that" Chloe said, grinning at her best friend.

Aubrey rolled her eyes. "It'll be well deserved on your part. Until that day comes, suck it up."

"There's the best friend I know and love." Chloe turned her attention back toward the crowd of students walking about, scouting for potential recruits. "Oh, what about her?" she pointed at a shorter brunette dressed in skinny jeans, red tank top and gray vest that was walking in the direction of their booth.

Aubrey followed Chloe's pointer finger to the girl her best friend had in mind for their group, scrunching up her nose at the heavy eyeliner and numerous piercings she could see meters away. There was something familiar to Aubrey about this girl, but she couldn't say exactly what it was. "I don't know, she looks a little too alternative."

"What was that, why did you do that?" Chloe asked her best friend, mimicking the air quote expressions Aubrey had used when saying the word alternative when describing the girl.

"It's just a thing I did, it doesn't have to mean anything" Aubrey said quickly, staring out the side of her eye to see whether or not the girl was closer to their booth than before. Much to her dismay, she was now feet away, and Chloe was thrusting a flyer in her direction as she went by the booth they were positioned behind.

"Hi, any interest in joining our a cappella group?" Chloe said cheerfully, the girl taking the flyer out of Chloe's hand and looking at it intently.

"Oh right, this is like a thing now" Beca replied, one of the corners of her mouth twisting upright as she skimmed the flyer now in her hand.

Getting a better look at her now that she was directly in front of her, Aubrey recognized where she had seen the girl Chloe was trying to woo into auditioning for their group. "You!" the blonde gasped, causing both Chloe and Beca to look at her strangely. "From the smoothie bar in Clearwater!"

Beca's eyes narrowed as she looked at the two girls standing behind the booth, eventually recalling the interaction she had with the two, even if it was a short and unpleasant one. "It's nice to see you both fully clothed" she quipped.

Aubrey's brow immediately furrowed as she shook her head in dismay. "No, there's no way she's going to be a Bella. Take your flyer and go."

"Absolutely not" Beca disputed as she turned toward Chloe, "I would _love_ to hear more about the Bellas."

Chloe eyed Aubrey nervously, the blonde clearly agitated by the short brunette. Getting a better look at her, Chloe did indeed recognize this girl as the same one she nearly fell on top of while they stood in line before placing their orders that summer day. She wasn't entirely sure what caused her to blatantly defy her best friend, who clearly wanted nothing to do with this girl, but before she knew it she was off explaining the world of a cappella.

"…we don't use a single musical instrument; it's all from our mouths."

"Oh boy" Beca muttered under her breath, the redhead then going on to explain the four different a cappella groups that Barden had.

"So are you interested?" Chloe said hopefully, her blue eyes bearing down into the brunette's as she awaited her response eagerly.

_Is she asking me if I'm interested in her or joining her group? It's the latter; it has to be the latter. _"No offense, but it's kind of lame, the a cappella thing" Beca scoffed.

"Aca-scuse me?" Aubrey could keep silent no longer now that this girl had insulted her craft, one of the many marks of her undergraduate career at Barden.

_Oh boy, _Chloe thought to herself as she saw the look of anger growing exponentially on Aubrey's face, knowing she would not be able to retain complete composure for much longer. "We sing all over the world and compete in national championships" Chloe cut in.

"On purpose?"

"We played the Cobb Energy Performing Art Center, you bitch!"

_There is it. _Chloe could see that this entirely situation was unraveling before her eyes, now a complete lost cause for recruiting this girl as a Bella, in addition to any other potential recruits that may have passed their booth in the meantime.

Beca's eyebrows contorted in amusement at the blonde's outburst. "And I have four tattoos."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Aubrey asked, rolling her eyes.

Beca placed her hand over her chest, mocking embarrassment. "I'm sorry; I thought we were sharing things the other doesn't give a damn about."

"You have a bug tattoo?" Chloe glanced at the brunette's forearm as it fell to her side, spotting the image of a grasshopper from what she could tell. "I have a bug tattoo!" The redhead extended her arm once again to Beca, revealing a tattoo of a ladybug on her wrist. Beca couldn't do anything but smile at the gesture, a genuine one at that Beca would go so far as to admit.

"Clearly this is meant to be" Beca deadpanned, although not intending to be completely insincere with the remark, her eyes going from the blonde still fuming at her very presence, and back to the redhead who continued to beam at her.

"As a Bella, you'd be part of a close group of girls whose dream is to return to the National Championship in New York City come spring" Chloe explained, getting back on track to pitching the a cappella group to the girl in front of her. "Help us turn our dreams into a reality?"

Beca considered the pitch presented to her; while she could have done without the blonde and most certainly would not want to have to see her on a consistent basis, there was something about the redhead that made her want to say yes. Maybe these girls weren't so different from her, she reasoned; they liked music and making it, who knew what else they would have in common. She soon snapped out of this trance, however, coming to her senses as she realized the amount of work she would have to endure in this group. There would be choreography, and matching outfits, and more likely than not being bossed around and scrutinized by the blonde, who she assumed to be the group's leader.

"Sorry, but I don't even sing… it was nice running into you guys again though." A final smirk came across Beca's lips before she walked away from the table, moving onto whichever booth caught her eye next.

Chloe and Aubrey quietly stood next to one another, neither of them speaking for some time. "What. Are we going to do?" Aubrey said through gritted teeth.

Chloe said nothing, her eyes trained on the brunette as she stood at the booth diagonally across from theirs. She felt as though there was more to this girl than she had let on from their brief interaction; she wanted to know more, she briefly remembered thinking at one point or another, even if she had no rational reason in doing so. Reason got the better of Chloe though as she reminded herself that the girl admitted she did not sing, and even more that she did not get along with Aubrey, which would only lead to disastrous practices and performances from what she could extrapolate. _Let it go_, she told herself on more than one occasion, _it's a lost cause._


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: A big thank-you to everyone who is reading and reviewing this story, it means a lot to me and I'm glad you are all enjoying it so far.**

Beca swiped her campus ID into the reader as she got to the front doors of Baker Hall after finishing her shift at the radio station, making her way over to the staircase that would lead to the wing her room was located. One thing seemed to not go her way after the other that day, starting with the impromptu visit from her father when she was supposed to be in her philosophy class. Being woken up from her midday nap to a lecture from her father was not how she planned on spending her Thursday afternoon, nor did he find the point she had made at all sound when she brought up the weirdness of him wandering into her room when she wasn't supposed to be there in the first place. A small glimmer of hope, however, came from his offer of allowing Beca to move to LA after the current year of school was complete, even offering to help and support the endeavor. So what if she would have to join a group or club on campus in order to hold up her end of the deal; even if nothing had caught her attention at the activities fair weeks ago, surely she could find _something _she could at least tolerate for the remainder of the school year.

Then came her shift at the campus radio station she was interning at, the one thing she had signed up for at the activities fair that she was genuinely interested in. Why her father didn't think that this experience of hers counted towards their bargain was something Beca tried long and hard to understand, even if her father did claim that since she was getting credit hours for working there it didn't count as an official Barden extracurricular. _He likes to see me suffer, _Beca thought grimly to herself after her father had left earlier that afternoon.

Beca didn't mind the fact that her shift that day was late in the evening and would go into the night; even if the incredibly important task of putting CD's back in their place took up less than a quarter of her shift to complete, and even if she felt as though the station manager, Luke had her there late at night as some sort of egotistical power trip, working at the radio station two or three days a week was one of the things she most looked forward to. Given the amount of downtime, Beca could get away with working on reading and homework for classes she actually bothered with, on occasion even working on a mix or two. Usually the latter occurred when she was working alone and not with her fellow intern, Jesse; this was not one of those nights.

She didn't mind him that much, she would eventually admit if someone bothered her long enough on the subject. Jesse had a decent and reputable enough taste in music that didn't instantly make her cringe when they had that conversation their first day of working together, and she could even get past his goofy grin and tangents about nothing. The thing about Jesse that really drove her crazy, however, was his presupposed notion that life was one giant movie saga, and he was her leading man in the college edition of hers. That much had been revealed on day one, when he commented on the serendipity of their working together at the station after his backseat serenade on move-in day, one she had found mildly amusing yet slightly forgettable.

Jesse strived to know everything about her, or anything she'd willingly reveal; he had pegged her as the girl whose walls he was to break down with his boyish looks and ever-so-persistent charm, and was to do this no matter how much she resisted. He was good-intentioned, Beca knew that, told that to herself whenever her patience would wean from his constant questioning of what she was working on all the time on her laptop. Simply put, he wasn't her type; she just had to figure out the best way to snap him out of his flight of fancy while keeping their tepid friendship intact. She did enjoy his company when he wasn't trying to play another round of Twenty Questions with her; he was easy to get along with and did make her laugh from time to time. Even more, he was one of the few people that most closely resembled a friend to her on this campus, more so than Kimmy Jin and the kid she sat next to in her music theory lecture who would wake her up whenever she'd fall asleep.

"Are you involved in anything on campus?" Beca had asked him as they were stacking their second batch of discs that evening.

"Are you asking something about my life?" Jesse asked, feigning surprise. "That's a first."

"Don't get used to it" Beca warned, "I have a deal with my dad and… anyway, are you or not?"

Jesse turned around to face her, shaking his head. "No. Not yet at least. I told my roommate Benji that if he gets approval for his Barden Alliance of Magicians that I'd join for moral support, but that hasn't happened yet even though it would have an amazing acronym… BAM!" he exclaimed, causing Beca to jump from his enthusiasm. "Oh, and I'm auditioning for the Treblemakers on Saturday, who knows whether or not they'll let me in" he added with a shrug.

"The Treblemakers" Beca mused, moving down the aisle as she placed another CD in its place. "They're one of the singing groups on campus, right?"

"It's not just singing" Jesse corrected, "It's a cappella. It's-"

"All from your mouths, I know I know" Beca interjected, waving her arms in dismissal of yet another explanation of the art. "I talked to a few of the Bellas a while ago about it."

"The Barden Bellas?" Jesse asked, intrigued. "Wait, are you going to join? You absolutely should; I can see it now. You'll be one of those a cappella girls, I'll be one of those a cappella boys, and we'll have aca-children. It's inevitable."

"Wouldn't that be aca-predictable" Beca said dryly. "There's no way I'm joining the Bellas, one of their leaders has it out for me already and… just no."

"Did she not find your personality affable and disposition sunny and cheerful?" Jesse deadpanned.

Beca smirked as they made their way back to the table in the middle of the station, having completed their task. "Whatever though, that aspect of music isn't my thing at all."

Jesse nodded as he fumbled with his backpack, his bottle of pop falling out and onto the floor. "You're right, it isn't for everyone." He retrieved the bottle from the floor and, without a second thought, twisted its cap, sending the carbonated beverage everywhere, including onto Beca.

Beca looked down at damp and sticky shirt, glaring up at him. "You're switching to water next time."

By the time Beca had reached her floor, she was in no mood to deal with anything else. Of course, this would be wishful thinking for Beca, as she found Kimmy Jin and two of her friends sitting on her bed watching a movie.

"Are you guys going to be up much longer?" Beca asked as she made her way to her closet to collect her bathrobe and shower caddy.

Kimmy Jin's eyes briefly left the television screen to address her roommate. "I thought you only had one rule, roomie."

Beca sighed, in no mood for any of what was being thrown at her. "I'm going to shower now; I'll need my bed to sleep in when I get back." She walked out of the room without waiting for a response as she made her way to the bathroom and showers in her residence hall.

* * *

Chloe jolted awake in her bed, breathing heavily as she snapped back into consciousness. Taking in her dark surroundings, she told herself over and over again that she was in her bedroom, located in her on-campus apartment she shared with Aubrey, and not… just the thought of the dream she had made her blush, and Chloe Beale never blushed.

In the dream, Chloe was walking along the beach alone at sundown, dream Chloe intent on finding the girl who had unknowingly serenaded her before. And in this dream, Chloe did indeed find her, although upon her recollection, couldn't recall what the girl looked like at all. Before she knew it, the scene changed to Chloe and the other girl alone in a bedroom as clothes were ripped off the other while she straddled the girl's hips. Never had she had a dream so vivid or felt so real, even the one she had about Justin Timberlake last year.

As she sat up in her bed thinking about the dream she just had, Chloe felt confused for a variety of reasons. She felt confused because she hadn't given a thought to this girl since she left the beach months ago, and wasn't entirely sure why this crept into her brain at this time. She had taken a psychology class her sophomore year, one of the many classes needed in order to graduate. One of the subject matters the class had covered involved dreaming, and one of the things she had taken along with her after the class had ended was the reasons we have the dreams we do. Sometimes, Chloe rationalized, the topics of our dreams had to do with what may have been on our mind before we went to sleep. Keeping this in mind, Chloe couldn't understand why in the world she would be having this dream at this point in time. The other part of Chloe's confusion hinged on the fact her subconscious depicted her kissing and doing… other things with another girl. She had never been attracted to another girl before, had never considered that she was anything other than straight. The fact that just a single dream about a single person who wasn't even remotely in her life anymore (not that she even was in her life in the first place) scared the crap out of her; she was completely out of her element.

Once she got past her layer of confusion regarding the dream, Chloe was able to admit to herself that just maybe she was incredibly turned on by the dream she had just had. She looked at the phone on her nightstand, seeing that it was almost midnight. She bit her lip as she scrolled through her phone contacts, pausing as she saw Tom's name on her screen. It wouldn't have been the first time she had sought him out so late at night, and she hated herself that she was going back on her declaration that everything was over between them. Against all better judgment, she typed out a message to him telling him to come over to her apartment, pressing send as she tossed her phone onto her bed as she waited for him to reply.

"_**No way. If u want this, you're coming to me."**_

Chloe rolled her eyes as she read the message. _I should just finish the job myself. _ She reached into her nightstand drawer, pulling out her iPod, frowning when it would not turn on, its battery dead.

"_**Fine." **_Chloe got out of her bed, pulling on a zip-up hoddie and slipping on a pair of flip flops before she grabbed her keys on top of her desk, quietly shutting her bedroom door behind her. She felt her phone go off in her pocket, signaling she had received another text message.

"_**Baker Hall showers, my roommate's asleep and the ones in Roscoe are flooded."**_

Ten minutes later, Chloe found herself inside a shower stall, Tom kissing her neck as he stood behind her. _I wonder if I'd like this if Tom were another woman_, Chloe remembered thinking briefly, closing her eyes as she let herself think just that. With the creak of the bathroom door opening, a voice flooded into the room, ringing throughout its walls. It was a voice Chloe thought she wouldn't have heard again once she left Aubrey's beach house, one she wasn't entirely sure she was hearing at all to begin with.

"_You shout it out, but I can't hear a word you say…"_

Chloe's eyes snapped open. _No fucking way,_ she thought to herself. _This is just a dream, a hallucination._

"…_I'm talking loud, not saying much…"_

Chloe pushed Tom's lips off her neck, making her way to the shower curtain. Tom grabbed her wrist before she could leave the stall.

"Where do you think you're going?" he hissed, thoroughly confused by Chloe's actions.

Chloe pulled her wrist away from him quickly, taking another step away from him as she vaguely pointed in the direction of the other girl's voice. "Bellas recruitment" she whispered as she left him standing alone in the stall. As she walked down to the only other occupied shower stall, she heard the bathroom door swing open behind her, indicating Tom's abrupt exit from the bathroom.

It wasn't a complete lie, she told herself; this girl did have an incredible voice and would make an excellent addition to the Bellas. As she continued to listen to the girl sing, she couldn't believe the similarity of her voice to the one she had briefly fallen in love with over the summer after a single song. There was no way this was the same girl, she told herself before slowly pulling back the shower curtain, revealing the bare back (well, bare everything) of a short, brunette, tattoos across her shoulder and back, and…_was that a grasshopper on her arm?_

"You can sing!" Chloe heard herself exclaim before she even knew it herself, whipping the shower curtain to the side as she walked into the girl's stall.

The girl turned around swiftly, reacting to her shower being invaded by another human being as any other individual would. "Dude!"

"Liar, liar pants on fire" Chloe exclaimed as she turned the water off in the stall, grinning as the brunette grabbed the shower curtain, trying her best to cover herself. "Does the saying still apply if you're not wearing any clothing?"

"I'm pretty sure my skin will just burst into flames at any moment now, actually" Beca said dryly, still in slight shock over her shower being invaded by the vivacious redhead.

Chloe's mind went into Bella mode immediately, pushing aside any other thoughts at the current moment. "You have to audition for the Bellas."

"I can't concentrate on anything you're saying until you cover your junk."

"Just consider it" Chloe replied, dismissing the brunette's call for modesty. "One time we sang back-up for Prince!"

"That's not a humble brag or anything resembling that" the girl sarcastically replied.

Chloe smirked in reply, her eyes travelling to the tattoo she had originally connected to the girl with almost a month ago. "Do you have a name, young grasshopper?" Chloe poked at the girl's arm, causing her to drop her shampoo bottle onto the floor.

"Beca" the girl said flatly after carefully picking up the bottle from the floor.

"Beca," Chloe repeated, feeling how the name sounded as it rolled off her tongue, "You were singing Titanium, right?"

Beca looked at the naked girl in front of her, only able to respond to the current question at hand and not anything else, for fear of doing or saying something incredibly stupid. "You know David Guetta?"

"Have I been living under a rock?" Chloe asked, slightly offended by Beca's question. "That song is my jam… my _lady_ _jam_.

_Is she suggesting what I think she's suggesting? _"That's nice" Beca said stiffly, wanting more than anything to just finish her shower, alone and in peace.

"It is, that song really builds, you know?" Chloe winked as the brunette turned even redder. She had no idea why she even winked at her in the first place, much less why she revealed to her why the very song the girl happened to be singing was the song she most often got off to. Perhaps, as Chloe would later reflect, this was the point when Chloe's mind began to process that Beca was the girl she had heard singing on the beach, even if she wasn't entirely aware of it at that point. "Will you sing it for me?"

_Yeah, no way am I ok with what she just asked me to do. _"Dude, no get out!" Beca gestured towards the exit of the stall.

"Not for that reason" Chloe assured her, "I'm not leaving until you sing, so…"

_I wouldn't bet against that, _Beca thought as Chloe sighed heavily, indicating that she indeed appeared not be going anywhere. Beca inhaled deeply before she began to sing the song, focusing very intently on the redhead's eyes and most definitely not any other part of her body. Chloe joined in shortly thereafter, harmonizing with the brunette effortlessly as she stared back deeply into Beca's eyes. Beca had to admit, they sounded great together, without even any rehearsal beforehand. When they were finished, Beca felt herself returning a smile to Chloe as the redhead beamed widely at her.

"Your blonde friend hates me" Beca reminded her, knowing that the redhead definitely wanted her to audition for her group now.

"Aubrey?" Chloe asked, "As soon as she hears you sing, she'll have no choice but to let you in." Silence fell over both of them as Beca thought about her options. She didn't have another club in mind to join if she wanted to fulfill her father's deal… and she had to admit, she had a connection to the redhead in some capacity or another, one which was drawing her in, making her harder to say no or refuse as each second passed by. Eventually, she snapped back to the reality of an attractive, toned and _naked_ redhead standing in front of her in her shower as her eyes traveled down her body.

Chloe saw Beca's not-so-subtle stare fixated on her body, checking her out. "Yeah, I'm pretty confident about all of this."

Beca's eyes snapped back up to Chloe's face, finding that the redhead was smirking at her. "You should be."

Chloe blushed for the second time tonight. _What is going on with you? _She asked herself as she continued to stand across from Beca.

"I, um… I need to shower still so..." the brunette trailed off, looking up at the ceiling.

"Right" Chloe replied, shaking her head as she turned around, walking out of the stall and closing the curtain behind her.

Beca absorbed everything that had just occurred, her mind operating in overdrive as she turned the water on for a second time, water from the shower head above pouring over her. She ran her hands through her wet hair, sighing deeply as she considered what she may have possibly gotten herself into.

"So you'll be there Saturday?" Beca whirled around as she found the redhead poking out from behind the shower curtain, looking expectantly at her as she awaited her response.

"Not if you don't leave right this second!" Beca replied sternly, the redhead laughing at the look of horror that had come across Beca's face.

"See you there!" And with that, Beca heard the door of the bathroom creak open once again, signaling the redhead's departure. The brunette sighed as she attempted to get her heart beat at a normal level once again, breathing deeply and steadily for a few minutes. She stood back under the shower head, letting the water pour over her face.

_A cappella, really Mitchell? That redhead is going to be the end of you whether you like it or not._


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: This chapter has been brought to you by Sleigh Bells, The Lumineers, and four cups of coffee. Enjoy!**

"Well," Aubrey said as she peered over the stack of applications she and Chloe had spread out over their coffee table, "Stacie and Ashley bring our numbers up to nine; it isn't ten like we wanted, but I can live with that if you can live with that." She looked over at Chloe sitting patiently beside her, waiting for her response.

Chloe riffled through the small mound of applications in front of them, bringing one in particular to the top of the pile. "I think you're forgetting to consider someone."

Aubrey looked at the picture stapled to the top of the questionnaire, her face scrunching up as though she had a bad taste in her mouth. "You're joking, right?"

"She was the best one by a landslide!" Chloe almost thought Beca wasn't going to show up to the a cappella auditions as she sat with Aubrey in the auditorium no more than a few hours ago, listening to one singer after another perform their renditions of the same Kelly Clarkson song, silently hoping that the brunette would walk onto the stage. While it seemed as though Beca was going to go to the auditions after her run-in with her in the showers, Chloe knew it was likely the shorter girl was only saying she would show up in order for Chloe to leave so she could shower in peace. Still, Chloe couldn't help but feel letdown as Tommy announced the end of auditions for the year…but then there she was, hiding offstage and looking directly at Chloe, as if waiting for the redhead to say something.

Before she knew it, Chloe was cutting Tommy off and telling him there was one more audition to be held and was waving Beca onto the stage despite her admission that she hadn't prepared the audition song. From the corner of her eye she could see Aubrey shifting uncomfortably in her chair by the presence of the brunette, likely thinking that she was on the stage as some sort of hoax to further piss her off. Yet when Beca opened her mouth to sing as she performed an intricate rhythm with the yellow cup taken from the desk in front of him, Chloe was almost certain she saw Aubrey's mouth agape at more than one point in time throughout the song. When the brunette had finished singing, Chloe could only beam widely at her, not only for actually showing up and auditioning for their singing group, but also because she knew Aubrey couldn't possibly not let her into the group.

Aubrey's lips pursed again as she faced her best friend. "She didn't even sing the audition song! There has to be a rule somewhere that disqualifies someone from joining-"

"There's no such rule, I read the Barden a cappella rules and regulations twice to make sure of it" Chloe cut her best friend's protest short, knowing the very point was likely to be brought up by her. "She has an incredible voice, Bree, there's no denying that."

"While you may have taken that from her rogue audition, what I heard was blatant defiance of the rules governing our audition process! Not only did she not sing the correct song, that silly cup trick was not something we do in a cappella!" Aubrey breathed in deeply to catch her breath, continuing, "If she's already going against what we do now, how the hell are we going to control her as a Bella?"

"In all fairness," Chloe began, "She probably didn't even know there was a specific song she had to prepare. I may or may not have barged into her shower when I heard her singing a few nights ago…"

"Wait…what? Why were you in the communal showers, we have our own in the apartment" Aubrey asked curiously, not aware of this fact until now, "Unless…"

"It was the last time, I'm not going to see Tom again" Chloe replied, clarifying the prior situation to the blonde. "For real this time; I'm pretty sure he'll never speak to me again after I left him to go and talk to her."

Aubrey paused to look at Chloe as the redhead made her case about letting the brunette into their group. She had never seen her best friend so insistent about something before in their three years of being friends with one another, and never had they disagreed about something to this extent. "You really want her to be one of us, don't you?"

"Yes" Chloe said slowly. Not only did she think Beca would make an excellent addition to the Bellas, there was a part of her that wanted Beca to be a part of her group so she would be able to get to know the brunette better. While Chloe certainly could have done her best to stalk the brunette around campus if she didn't show up to the auditions earlier this afternoon, having a common extracurricular activity as the brunette sure made things a hell of a lot easier in getting to know her better. It didn't hurt that Beca had a killer voice either; she and Aubrey would have been crazy not to let Beca join their team.

_God, that voice_. After hearing Beca sing for a second time, Chloe was certain that Beca was the same girl she had heard singing on the beach over the summer, and the redhead wasn't entirely sure how to process that. Chloe should have been petrified by the prospect of actually knowing the person whose voice had such an effect on her months ago; then again, there wasn't much Chloe was afraid of and she instead was excited to get to know the brunette better over the current school year.

"Fine" Aubrey replied finally after considering whether or not to let Beca into the Bellas, "She best not cause too much trouble though."

"You make it sound like she's going to cause trouble on purpose" Chloe pointed out.

Aubrey smirked. "If the shoe fits."

"It's going to be alright, Bree" Chloe waved Aubrey's concerns away as she hugged her best friend. "So when are we going to break the news to all of them?"

Aubrey reached across the couch to the living room floor, pulling out a bag of navy blue pillowcases and holding them up for Chloe to see.

"Really Bree? We can't just text them and have them meet us at our practice auditorium tonight like normal people?" Chloe eyed the bag uncertainly, her thoughts going back to her freshman year when she was awoken late at night in her dorm room with one of those very pillowcases being thrown over her head and being pushed out of her bed and led blindly across campus before being made aware of the circumstances.

"We have tradition to uphold" Aubrey reminded her, "But I suppose we could go about the process in a more… humane way than how we were initiated." Aubrey gave Chloe four of the girl's applications, detailing the residence halls each lived in, while she took the other four.

Chloe glanced through the applications of the girls she would later be gathering that evening, her brow furrowing when she noticed she did not have Beca's. "Bree, you can't be the one to kidnap Beca."

Aubrey's eyes narrowed at Chloe's suggestion. "And why is that?"

Chloe gave Aubrey a look saying as though she should know the answer to such a question. "Knowing you, you'd put her in a sleeper hold without any warning at all!"

"We have to make an example out of one of them so the others fall into line" Aubrey muttered, looking over at Chloe who appeared horrified at the suggestion. "Oh my god, I'm kidding. Fine you take her if you want her so much." She handed Chloe Beca's application as she randomly took one from Chloe's pile.

Chloe chose not to protest Aubrey's particular phrasing of what she had just said to her, instead glancing down at which dorms she would have to travel to later that evening. "So we'll meet up at ten?"

Aubrey nodded. "That should give us enough time to round them all up."

"Great. " Chloe got up from the couch, grabbing her jacket and keys. "I'm going to the liquor store to get the blood of our former sisters, I'll be back soon" she added with a wink

"I'm going to need something stronger than Boone's Farm this year" Aubrey muttered, the comment not going unnoticed by her best friend.

"There's tequila and rum under my bed!"Chloe called to the blonde as she stood in the doorway of the apartment entrance before closing the door behind her. Aubrey only shook her head at her best friend's antics, sighing to herself as she thought about the group of freshmen girls they would be initiating into the Bellas later that night.

* * *

Beca walked out of the campus convenience store, Red Bull in hand as she made her way back to her dorm room for the night. She had an English paper she hadn't even started that she knew she should have begun days ago, and knew it would be a long night for her.

"Excuse me" a voice behind her called as she walked across the dimly lit quad. Beca turned around reacting to the voice, the sight of a hooded figure approaching her.

"Does this smell like chloroform to you?" Before Beca knew it, a dark cloth was being shoved into her face and nose, causing the brunette to stumble backward in a panic as she threw her beverage into the air, spilling onto the ground. Beca retreated backward from the other figure as she struggled to get up, cursing the fact she had left her campus rape whistle in her room. Before she could fight back, however, the unknown figure removed the hood on their head, revealing a mane of red hair belonging to a _very_ familiar face.

"Chloe!" Beca hissed, angry yet also relieved she wasn't going to make the local news or missing persons section of the newspapers, "What the fuck?!"

Chloe laughed hysterically, unable to control herself over the brunette's reaction. "If I had known you would have reacted like _that_ I would have thought twice about doing it. Or recorded it at least." The redhead added, extending a hand to the brunette.

Beca pulled herself up from the ground with Chloe's help, rubbing the dirt off her jeans, grimacing. "That still doesn't explain why you just did that."

"Bella initiation tonight." Chloe explained, "Consider yourself officially kidnapped."

"Do you do this to all the new initiates?" Beca asked, referring to the stunt Chloe had just pulled.

"Nope, just you" Chloe said, who began to laugh again at the memory of Beca's spastic reaction that had occurred moments ago.

"Way to make a girl feel special" Beca said dryly.

"I could say the same to you considering I never gave you my name a few days ago" Chloe pointed out, smirking down at the brunette.

The smirk on Beca's face quickly fell, her mind driving into panic mode. The redhead was absolutely right; she hadn't given Beca her name after Beca had introduced herself; that information Beca had gathered on her laptop that evening after returning to her room and finding the Barden Bellas official Facebook page and from there, co-captain Chloe Beale. "Social media's a lovely thing, isn't it?"

"I knew it!" Chloe exclaimed, pointing her finger at the brunette. "Creep."

"Says the girl who barged into another girl's shower" Beca replied without missing a beat, raising an eyebrow in Chloe's direction.

"Well I guess we're even then." Chloe looked at her phone, noting the time. "We really need to get this kidnapping thing moving, Mitchell."

"By all means, kidnap away" Beca said amused as she threw her arms out wide.

Chloe rolled her eyes as she took one of the brunette's arms, dragging her over to the parking lot her car was parked in. "For the record, I do have access to chloroform, so don't think about ever crossing me."

Beca looked at the redhead from the corner of her eye, not sure how to reply. "Part of me wants to ask why, but a larger part of me knows better not to."

"I'm a teaching assistant for the chem department, silly" Chloe explained, nudging one of Beca's shoulders with her own. "By the way, you need to start showing up for lab and recitation."

"I knew I should have taken biology" Beca replied wryly, earning her another shove from the redhead.

"Oh please, it's not that bad and I'll help you if you're going to be that much of a baby about it" Chloe assured her.

"Considering that's literally part of your job description, I would hope so." Beca and Chloe reached the redhead's car, standing in front of the front passenger door. Seeing three other hooded girls in the backseat, Beca went to grab the door handle, but instead the redhead stopped her.

"Where else am I supposed to go?" Beca asked, giving the redhead a strange look.

Chloe gestured to the back of the car. "The trunk, obviously. Hood on, Mitchell" she added, quickly reaching above the brunette and pulling the pillowcase over her head.

Beca snatched the pillowcase off as quickly as it had been put over her, glaring at Chloe."You're joking" she said, it being more of a statement than a question.

"It's too easy with you." Chloe rolled her eyes as she put the navy hood over Beca's head once again, the brunette not resisting this time, even when Chloe tied Beca's hands behind her back.

"I wouldn't put it past you at this point."

Chloe rolled her eyes at the brunette's remark as she guided her into the front passenger seat. "No more talking" she whispered into where she assumed one of the brunette's ears were before shutting the car door, walking around the front of the car and sliding into the driver's seat. "Okay, aca-initiates, let's do this!"


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Sorry for the delay everyone, it's been a hectic month or so. I'm hoping to update more consistently now that most of the crazy is over with for now. This was originally supposed to be a much longer chapter, but I ultimately decided to split it into two parts because I think it flows better that way. A huge thank-you to everyone's feedback on the story, it is greatly appreciated.**

"Okay ladies, candles out before we head over to the aca-initiation party" Aubrey instructed only minutes after deeming the group of celebrating girls in front of her and Chloe official members of the Barden Bellas. The girls reluctantly broke away from one another, making their way over to the hundreds of lit candles adorned along the tables.

"How long did it take you guys to light all of these?" Beca asked as she found herself standing across one of the tables from Chloe, blowing out the candles in front of her one by one.

Chloe looked up at the sound of the Beca's voice, pleasantly surprised to see the brunette standing in front of her. "Not as long as you'd think. Aubrey and I have gotten this down to a science." Beca nodded as she continued to walk the length of the table, one of her hands hovering over the flames as she felt the heat radiating from them onto her palm.

Chloe surveyed Beca as she did this, the brunette's eyes fixed into the flames as Chloe's gaze was fixed onto Beca. "You have heard the phrase about what happens when you play with fire, right?"

Beca smirked at the redhead playfully as she placed the last lit candles in her hand. "I don't think that applies when you've been doing so for a while now."

"Very deep, Mitchell."

"Deep is my middle name" Beca deadpanned, which only made Chloe roll her eyes at her. The brunette then proceeded to take her thumb and index finger to the still lit candle, pinching the wick until the flame went out. Chloe watched the brunette carefully, who looked up smugly at her before screaming out in pain, the candle falling to the ground.

"Jesus Christ Beca!" Chloe said, running over to the other girl's side as she took Beca's clenched fist in her own, gently opening Beca's hand to reveal the seared fingers.

"Okay Bellas, hood night celebrations are upon us!" Aubrey called from the other end of their practice space. "Chloe" the blonde waved a hand beckoning Chloe to her side as the other initiates stood around the blonde co-captain.

Chloe shook her head at Aubrey, her hand still clasped around Beca's wrist. Aubrey swiftly walked over to them, frowning. "Beca and I will be there in a few minutes, there was a slight… mishap with one of the candles."

Aubrey looked from one girl to the other, seeing Beca's burnt fingers in one of Chloe's hands as she examined the damage. "Do you have this under control?" Chloe nodded in response to the blonde's question. "Alright, let me know if you need anything."

"We'll be there in just a few minutes, no worries" Chloe assured Aubrey before the blonde walked away with the other Bellas, leaving Beca and Chloe alone in the auditorium.

"You'd think the pain wouldn't be so intense by now" Beca commented to Chloe, biting her bottom lip as the pain echoed through her hand.

Chloe grabbed her bottle of water resting on the table, removing the cap from the bottle before pouring the cool liquid slowly over Beca's hand. "I wouldn't know, I've never voluntarily put my hand to an open flame before."

Beca looked over at the redhead incredulously, in awe over Chloe's swift reaction to the entire situation and her ability to make light of it. "It's almost as if you expected this to happen" Beca mused while Chloe closely inspected the skin of her damaged fingers.

Chloe looked up at Beca, rolling her eyes. "Believe it or not, I genuinely thought you knew what you were doing. Besides, this happens a lot more than you think in chem lab. You'd know if you actually attended" she added, winking up at the brunette before walking across the room to grab the group's first aid kit.

"Right" Beca replied as Chloe returned to her side, carefully wrapping Beca's hand in gauze and a bandage, "Thanks, by the way. I owe you."

"You don't think I know that?" Chloe joked, smiling at the brunette as she let go of her hand.

"So where is this party?" Beca asked as silence fell between them moments ago in the large practice space.

Chloe grabbed Beca by the arm, linking her arm together with the brunette as she led her toward the door. "Not far at all" she replied as they walked outside onto campus, leading Beca over to the festivities.

Beca looked down at her arm now linked with Chloe's, not objecting or resisting the contact with the co-captain at all. Soon enough, they were at the top of the outdoor theatre with dozens of their a cappella peers partying below.

"This is… something" Beca said simply, the party not being what she had expected at all. Chloe looked over at Beca, a smile forming on her face as she watched the brunette take in the celebration.

"Beca!" a voice called from below, forcing Beca to locate the source of the call. "Becaw! Becaw!" The brunette smirked as the source of the call revealed itself to be Jesse, wearing a maroon zip-up sweatshirt, red Solo cup in his hand that she doubted was his first drink of the night.

"Wow" Beca said dryly as she witnessed the boy unsteadily yet somehow successfully climb over the stone steps before standing proudly in front of her and Chloe. "Chloe, this is Jesse; we work at the radio station together."

"You look like Treble" Chloe joked, noticing the trademark article of clothing Jesse was wearing over his blue shirt.

"I think you meant to say trouble" Jesse corrected her, not understanding the play on words in the state he currently found himself in. "And I'm the opposite of that, I was an Eagle Scout back in the day."

"I think she meant to say drunk" Beca commented, making Chloe stifle a laugh as Jesse continued to look confoundedly at them.

"I'll let you two catch up, this ginger needs her jiggle juice!" Chloe ran a hand down the length of Beca's arm before leaving the brunette's side before doing a little dance in front of them that drew Beca's eyes south. "See you later!"

"Make good choices" Beca replied, eyes still fixed on the point where Chloe once stood. Eventually, she turned her attention back to Jesse, who was looking at her smugly. "What's that look for?"

"So that's why we're not going to have aca-children" Jesse replied, taking another sip out of his cup.

Beca looked at him as she determined the best way to respond to what he was suggesting. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Jesse rolled his eyes at Beca's blatant question dodging. "You seemed very sure of yourself a few days ago when you said you wanted nothing to do with the Bellas, and now you're one of them; how does that happen?"

"I changed my mind is all" Beca replied, most definitely not wanting to bring up the shower incident; she suspected it would only fuel his insistence that she had some sort of thing for Chloe. Which wasn't completely far off, she told herself, but there was no way she was telling him that. "She's my chem TA dude, stuff like that is completely out of the question."

"I didn't know you were taking chemistry this semester" Jesse commented.

"I may have been skipping the lab and lecture to work at the radio station…" Beca trailed off slowly.

"Not anymore now that you're hot for teacher" Jesse replied with a grin, earning him a shove in the chest from Beca.

"Dude, drop it."

"I wonder what's going on there" Aubrey said to Chloe as she looked up at Jesse and Beca interacting with one another at the top of the theatre.

Chloe looked up to where Aubrey was referring to, seeing the brunette and Jesse laughing as they continued on with whatever conversation they were having with one another. "They work at WBUJ together, I don't think there's anything there, Bree" Chloe replied, taking a sip out of her beverage and Aubrey's lips continued to purse at the sight.

"Sure they are" Aubrey stated, unconvinced at Chloe's explanation. "She took an oath."

"They're just talking, they didn't take an oath against being friends with a Treble" Chloe pointed out to her fellow captain.

Aubrey took a swig of her drink before placing the cup down on the seat behind them. "It may just be talking now, but it's a slippery slope and she best not lose her footing." Chloe opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by Fat Amy, a newly initiated Bella, walking over to them, throwing an arm clumsily around Aubrey's shoulder as she stood beside her.

"Having a fun night, Amy?" Chloe asked the freshman, happy for the change in conversation topic.

Amy nodded in response brightly, "I haven't had this much fun since those kangaroos decided to party at the local nightclub. I didn't interrupt anything, did I?"

"Not at all" Chloe said quickly, "We were just saying we have a great group of girls this year, right Aubrey?"

Aubrey nodded stiffly, "It's going to be a great year."

"So I've been thinking" Amy continued to the two co-captains, "There's like ten of us… that means one of us is probably a lesbian."

"Which one do you think it is?" Aubrey asked Amy, intrigued by whatever insight the Aussie may have had on such a theory.

"I'm going to get another drink" Chloe announced suddenly, leaving Aubrey and Amy to their current discussion. It's not that their conversation made Chloe uncomfortable; she just wasn't entirely certain what she would have done if either of them thought Beca might like girls, much less if such a thing were actually true. If it were true then Chloe knew she was in trouble. She was better off not knowing, Chloe told herself, at least for now.

* * *

A few hours later, Beca retreated from the aca-initiation party, finding a vacant seat near the top of the theatre and she sat down and took in the events of the night. She had made her rounds throughout the party after Jesse had gone to talk to another Treblemaker, mingling with the other Bellas as well as a few others within the a cappella community at Barden. The party was still going strong, the vast majority of its attendees dancing in the middle of the vast space near the theatre's center. As she looked down upon the crowd of people, she couldn't help but notice the redheaded figure stumbling over to her as she practically sat on top of Beca.

"I am so glad that I met you" Chloe said, taking Beca's hands in her own as she turned to face the brunette. Beca sat frozen in her seat, having no idea at all what Chloe was going to do next until the redhead's lips grazed her ear. "I think we're going to be fast friends."

"Well, you saw me naked" Beca winked, saying the first thing that came to mind that was at all coherent. Chloe only laughed, resting her head on Beca's shoulder as her lips inadvertently grazed the brunette's neck.

"I saw you singing on that beach and I knew, I knew I had to get to know this girl" Chloe slurred quietly into the crook of Beca's neck, fumbling with one of Beca's hands in her own.

Beca looked down at the redhead, not having a clue what she was referring to. "How much have you had to drink Beale?"

"I'm serious" Chloe said defensively, poking Beca in the ribs. "You were singing that Brand New song… it was like love at first sight."

Beca failed to hear the second part of Chloe's reply, for she was too fixated on the prospect of Chloe having heard her playing her guitar and singing on the beach over the summer. "You heard that?" Chloe nodded solemnly before letting out a yawn, her arms stretched above her head before returning to her side.

"There you are!" Beca and Chloe looked up to see Aubrey walking up the stairs toward them, bottle of water in hand as she handed it to the redhead.

"How much did she have to drink?" Beca asked as Chloe began to chug the bottle of water.

"It's not that she drank a lot, it's that she drank it all at once" Aubrey replied as leaned against the back of the seating in front of them. "The result of Bumper suggesting a round of Staccato Shots for the captains of each group."

"And you're not the same way because?"

Aubrey scoffed at the question, "Posens handle their liquor _very_ well" she said proudly. "Let's get you home, Chlo. See you bright and early tomorrow, Beca."

Beca nodded as she watched as Aubrey led Chloe up the stairs and away from the party, leaving Beca alone once again with her thoughts.


End file.
